Established in 1995, we create media through an international production process from our base in Ottawa, Canada

ISSUES IMPACTED

Firdaus Kharas has created for impact 80 animated and live action series, several documentaries, and hundreds of hours of live action television series, each on different topics, including:

Capacity building: Using creativity, producing mass communications, types of animation, animation production, documentary production, media distribution, overcoming barriers to communications, community support engagement

Culture: Preservation of culture, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia; African folktales

Education: Early childhood and middle children’s education, early childhood education and values, education in languages, education for refugee children, street children, children at risk, training in mass communications, literacy promotion, cyber-security

Environment: Conservation, kindness to animals, interaction with nature, climate change, water management, solar power, promoting biodiversity, sustainable energy for all

Governance: Universal values, human rights, children’s rights under the international convention, rights of children with diabetes, emergency and disaster preparedness, engaging women in the peace process, following laws, voting promotion

Health: COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 understanding and prevention, stigma felt by COVID-19 healthcare workers, Ebola containment and prevention, HIV/AIDS prevention, HIV/AIDS education, malaria prevention, polio eradication, clean energy, solar energy, Type 1 diabetes, caregivers to people with dementia, research on dementia, Vitamin A deficiency, immunizations and vaccinations promotion, liver disease prevention, dangers of asbestos, asbestos eradication, migraine disease, migraine disease workplace changes, obesity in children, stigma against Ebola survivors, hypertension during pregnancy, Guinea Worm eradication, Plague prevention, Zika prevention

Housing: Housing options, safety in housing

Human Rights: Universal rights, children’s rights, racial discrimination, racism, becoming anti-racist, rights of children with Type 1 diabetes, gender-based rights, sexual violence, long lasting effects of rape, sexual harassment, sexual harassment within churches, physical violence amongst teenagers, interacting with the police, child refugee claimants, child camel jockeys

Maternal health: Pregnancy, infant mortality and health, health from pregnancy through the first 100 days of life, safe births, universal birth registration

Migration/Refugees: Building support for refugees, understanding and accepting refugees, definition and causes of refugees, child refugees, refugee application and adjudication systems, refugees rights and responsibilities, first 90 days after arrival, refugee re-settlement, displaced persons, asylum determination, causes of refugees, refugee camps, legal rights of refugees (human rights, education, medical, housing, employment), safe spaces for refugees, anti-fraud education, cultural orientation for refugees, reducing violence amongst refugees

Universal Values: Anti-racism, gender equality, honesty, anti-bullying, cultural tolerance, attitudes towards victims of rape

Violence: Violence against children, violence amongst teenagers, rape within families and conflict situations, various forms of sexual abuse, using culture as a justification for violence, perceived right to commit violence within families, gender-related violence, attitudes towards rape victims, how to interact with the police, exploitation of children.

Work

• Creator of two animated videos on housing options and safety at home for newcomers.
• Creator of two documentary shorts related to people living with dementia.
• Director and Executive Producer of a series of 4 animated shorts entitled Becoming Anti-Racist
• Creator of a video on hypertension among pregnant women in Africa
• Creator and Director of a video on the stigma felt by COVD-19 healthcare workers in the Middle East
• Director of a video on emergency preparedness in California
• Director of a video on how to interact with the police in the United States
• Creator and Director of a video for refugees on COVID-19 virus understanding and prevention
• Director of an animated video on the effects of rape on women in Africa, A Plea To My Father
• Director of an animated video on sexual harassment within churches worldwide
• Director of several videos and audio podcasts on the United States refugee system
• Creator and Director of three animated shorts to build awareness of migraines
• Creator and Director of two animated videos on issues faced by teen-aged refugees in Ecuador
• Creator and Director of two animated videos on the dangers of asbestos
• Co-Creator and Director of three animated videos on Ebola containment, prevention and stigma
• Creator and Director of an animated video on global Polio vaccination
• Creator of a series on the rights of children with diabetes
• Creator of an animated series on values for young children
• Creator of a whiteboard animated video on violence against children and young women in Malawi
• Creator of The Solar Campaign designed to get people without electricity to switch from harmful sources of light like burning kerosene to clean solar lights
• Director of a documentary on women from conflict zones
• Co-producer and Director of two animated shorts designed to encourage universal birth registration
• Creator of No Excuses, an animated campaign to prevent domestic violence throughout the world (launched at the United Nations in New York, USA)
• Producer of the iconic television series George of the Jungle (distributed by DreamWorks)
• Director of No Thanks, We’re Fine, two videos for caregivers to people with dementia
• Creator and Director of Nature For All, an animated video designed to get people to interact with nature
• Audio Producer for the pre-school series Ella Bella Bingo
• Producer and Director of Pedro: A Child Without A Country, a documentary on an unaccompanied child refugee claimant going through the Canadian refugee determination system.
• Director of The Three Amigos, an animated series to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Creator of Buzz and Bite, an animated series to prevent malaria infection
• A series of individual documentaries on Canadian children at risk
• Creator of Nan and Lili, the 300-episode first animated pre-school series in Arabic
• Director of Magic Cellar, the first animated series based on African culture
• Executive Producer of Honk, Toot and Swo-Swoosh, the early learning pre-school children’s series

Dedicated to capacity building

For over 28 years Firdaus Kharas has been committed to improving the skills of media professionals around the world sharing his expertise, pro bono, via workshops, seminars and multi-month courses, particularly in Asia and Africa. Kharas’ commitment to sharing his vision and methodology also includes meeting with students, lecturing on mass communication, and speaking at festivals of film and television.

Kharas’ humanitarian work in countries other than his own includes organizing and leading a multi-faceted program in South Africa to train South Africans in producing, writing and animating.  This capacity-building training aims to create a vibrant long-form animation industry capable of world-class story-telling.

198 countries, over 500 language versions, 4,000+ productions with over a billion viewers

Firdaus Kharas began creating media in 1995, founding Chocolate Moose Media, a hybrid social enterprise making for-profit television series and not-for-profit media campaigns. He also established television production companies in Canada and in Asia including partnerships with the Royal Family of Malaysia, the News Corporation and UTV of India.

To date Kharas has created, directed and produced over 4,000 animated behavior change communications shorts. The animations have been seen by 198 countries, adapted into over 500 language versions, reaching more than a billion people in their own language. Wishing only to positively influence viewers, Kharas distributes his campaigns free of charge to any requester located anywhere in the world. “I’m just trying to make a small contribution”, said Kharas to the Globe and Mail.

Kharas’ firsts in long-form television include the:

• First pre-school animated series in Arabic
• First animated series based on African culture
• First animated pre-school series in Holland
• First English-language daily hour-long drama in Asia

Media

Firdaus Kharas is profiled in several publications including in many articles and Canadian Who’s Who.

He has been profiled over 500 times by the world’s press, from The New Yorker, Reader’s Digest, MacLean’s and The Atlantic magazines to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and dozens of other media around the world in several languages. His methods, particularly his methodology of linguistic adaptation and ability to create mass communication across cultural boundaries have regularly been the subject of academic study by students. Kharas and his work are noted in many books and publications and his work is in the permanent collection of several museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest.